Sarah Schlepp
Mr. Z
Biology P-3
March 10 2014
Breast Cancer
Did you know that 1 in 8 U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime? In 2013, an estimated 232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancer were expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with
64,640 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer1 .

There is no clear cause of breast cancer known today but there are a lot of risks.
Generally, women over 50 are more likely to get breast cancer than younger women, and African-American women are more likely than Caucasians to get breast cancer before menopause2 . Many conclusions have been made that hormones tend to play a bigger factor in the cause of breast cancer than we originally thought.
Researchers think that the greater a woman's exposure to the hormone estrogen, the more likely she is to get breast cancer. Estrogen tells cells to divide; the more the

1

"U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics ­ Breastcancer.org." 2012. 11 Mar. 2014
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http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics
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2 "Breast Cancer Causes/Risks: Genetics, Hormones, Diet, & More." 2007. 11 Mar. 2014
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http://www.webmd.com/breast­cancer/guide/what­causes­breast­cancer
>

cells divide, the more likely they are to be abnormal in some way, possibly becoming cancerous3 .Some studies show that taking hormone replacement therapy after menopause may increase the risk of breast cancer, especially when taken for more than five years. The jury is still somewhat questioning on this matter though. Heavy doses of radiation therapy may also be a factor, but low-dose mammograms prove almost no risk. It has also been shown that women with a lower amount of fat intake in their diet - 20-30%- have a much lower risk of breast cancer.

Breast cancer can normally be cured if it is found in the early stages. There are many different